


If Wrex Had to Pick a Human

by tacticalbuttcheeks



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Friends to Lovers, Mass Effect 3, Mass Effect Kink Meme, Renegade Commander Shepard, Spacer Commander Shepard, i love?? wrex and shepard??, n then her n wrex banter for a bit, open to continuing if there's interest, shep is sad n punches things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 14:37:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8988091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tacticalbuttcheeks/pseuds/tacticalbuttcheeks
Summary: Fill for the kink meme: When Wrex is on board, Shepard is having a rough time with all the responsibility thrust upon her. Then something happens-she gets news that her mom was KIA it tips all that pent-up emotion over the edge and she can't hold it in anymore, then rushes to what she thinks is an empty room to cry her heart out. Full body-wracking robs. It's awful. Wrex just happens to be in the room, and she doesn't notice until he's there with his hand on her shoulder and she lets him pull her in for a big krogan hug.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a helluva lotta firsts for me: first Mass Effect fic, first kink meme fill and first real fandom fic that wasn't just between two OCs since my embarrassing Hetalia phase in 2012. I'm always super self conscious about not writing NPCs true to character, hopefully I didn't completely fuck up Wrex. Feedback is welcome!

Shepard was never one to wear emotion on her sleeve. More often than not, sentiment was filed safely away before it even had the chance to see the light of day and forgotten. Unfortunately for her, over the years the nice little filing cabinet in her mind had been filled well past capacity and it seemed the breaking point was fast on the horizon. 

She was determined to keep herself sane. An emotion wrought weapon isn’t a very effective one and right now, in the midst of a war with the Reapers -a war which would determine the continuation or swift destruction of the universe as they knew it- she needed to be an effective weapon: apathetic and unburdened. 

Regrettably, that’s not how people work. That harsh lesson was learned while reading a missive on her private terminal. Initially she refused to believe it. The message was unsigned with untraceable address, and Shepard could list a thousand and one reasons straight off the bat why someone might send such a message: to get under her skin, knock her off guard, toy with her. Needless to say she didn’t give it much merit. 

While she told herself that it was only meant as a distraction by someone at worst or a cruel joke at best, Shepard still wasn’t able to quell the icy fear rising up in her gut and knew she wouldn’t be able to perform at her best without knowing the truth. With that in mind, she squared her shoulders and set for the long range comm room. 

It took a few moments longer than usual to connect to Hackett, but when she did she felt first relief, then soul crushing doubt. The normally composed Admiral initially surprised to see her, then his demeanor changed to something decidedly less assuring and something about it made her stomach drop. 

“Commander I- I wasn’t expecting to hear back from you until after you returned from Grissom. Did you need something?” 

Oh no, she wasn’t about to let him skirt around whatever was making him act so off. “Hackett I just received a troubling message and I need you to confirm that it’s bullshit.” 

“Very well Shepard, what did the message say?” 

She pursed her lips and took in a deep breath through her nose. “Is my mother dead, Hackett? I need you to be honest with me.” 

Shepard didn’t miss the way his jaw tensed, nor how he deliberately arranged his face into a professional mask and she felt cracks begin to form in her emotional armor. 

“Commander-” 

“Don’t Commander me, Admiral, tell it to me straight; is she or is she not dead? I need to know, god damnit!” She couldn’t stop the crack in her voice and didn’t much care to, either. Her pride was on the backburner, the only thing that mattered was whether or not she was now an orphan. 

Hackett’s poker face slowly fell away and he released a drawn out sigh. “Shepard, Hannah Shepard’s status is classified until further notice, I apologize-” 

“Hackett!” Up until that point she’d tried to keep her voice low in order to keep her business private but her patience and, consequently, inhibitions were fast wearing thin and her voice was now loud enough to be heard in the adjoining War Room. 

Another sigh. “Commander, these are desperate times and.. I know it’s important to you so-” The hologram Hackett brought up his omnitool and within a moment, her own pinged. “I’ve sent you all I can.” 

Itching to bring up the message, Shepard shifted her feet. “Thank you, Hackett. I won’t forget this.” 

Still appearing troubled, he nodded. “Alright, Shepard. Report back if you have any questions or updates on the task at hand.” 

“Mmhm.” 

“And Shepard?” 

“Yeah?” 

“My condolences. Hackett out.” 

As the connection severed, Shepard felt as though a fist had just grabbed her heart and twisted it in it’s grip. In a daze, she stumbled out of the Comm room. 

_Condolences?_

Her fingers set about transferring the reports to a terminal in the war room to be decrypted and while that was being done, her mind was free to wander elsewhere. She settled on taking a mental inventory of her surroundings. The room was empty save for Wrex who had been speaking with Eve over comm when she’d entered and was now openly eyeing her through narrowed eyes, obviously wondering about her outburst. The Primarch and crew who usually occupied the space had long gone to bed, and somewhere in the back of her consciousness she was grateful for that small mercy. 

Her thoughts were brought suddenly back to the terminal in front of her when a small beep informed her that the files were ready.  
Shepard had never read so fast in her life. 

Most of the information was inconsequential; supply records, lists of crew, it was all bare bones and she guessed the real meat of it had been removed due to it still being classified. She only skimmed most of it, her eyes searching for her mother’s name. Her breath caught when she finally found it in uncensored lines of the post-mission report. 

Subsection: Casualties.  
_[...] While attempting to evacuate civilians via air car, a Cerberus Atlas managed to shoot down three of the ten cars. No civilians survived. Private Cecily Blatt, Major Donovan Michaels, and Officer Bryce Denisovich died on impact. Captain Hannah Shepard and Sergeant Mabel Abbott survived impact but were executed by Cerberus ground troops before backup could arrive [...]_

The blood drained from Shepard’s face and she violently pushed herself away from the terminal and began pacing down the room. 

_Survived impact._  
_Executed._  
_Dead._  
_Orphan._

She couldn’t hold back a choked gasp and whirled around, punching the nearest wall, her biotically charged fist leaving a crater behind. She let out a stream of curses and punched again. 

When Shepard reared back for another punch, she met with resistance in the shape of a strong Krogan hand grabbing her wrist. Jolts of pain shot down her arm from her now mangled hand but, rather than turning her fury on the meddling person behind her, Shepard felt all of her fight inexplicably drain from her body through that one point of contact. 

“Wrex?” 

“Shepard.” 

Her teeth clenched as her eyes began to leak. “Wrex?” 

A sigh, then: “Shepard.” 

She choked on her sorrow and suddenly the entire mental filing cabinet, that shield that’d kept her steady through trial after trial was turned over and she suddenly felt everything she’d ever stored away. Dropping to the ground, her half-strangled whines turned to full blown tears, which quickly became body-wracking sobs. 

“EDI, close off the War Room.” 

Obediently, the entrance to the room shut and the locks clicked into place. “Will that be all, Urdnot Wrex?” 

His only response was a grunt, but it seemed the AI got the message as she logged off and left them alone in the room, the only sound being Shepard’s uncharacteristically heart wrenching wails. 

Wrex was a battlemaster, and was never much for consolation. Even so, he found his hearts clenching at his closest friend’s distress and it was that feeling that drew him down to the ground behind her. 

Still unsure what to do, he remained there awkwardly for several moments before growling out of frustration. “Damn it Shepard I’m not good at this stuff, get over here.” 

Her sobbing paused as though she had forgotten he was there, and she slowly turned herself to face him, her brow drawing downward and her bottom lip quivering the slightest bit. Despite himself, Wrex felt amazed that this was _his_ Shepard sitting in front of him, baring her soul to him. He would’ve expected himself to be put off by her show of weakness, but instead he felt pride -as well as something else he dared not name- that such an exceptionally powerful woman would trust him enough to reveal that weakness to him and only him. 

Wrex didn’t have long to dwell on that second feeling as Commander Shepard was suddenly in his arms. An affectionate rumble rose, unbidden in his chest as he held her tight to himself. The sobs returned, but it seemed the vibrations had a calming effect as they ebbed quicker than before into whimpers and then the occasional hiccup. 

At some point she’d adjusted herself to lay with her head in his lap and he’d started threading his claws through her curiously soft hair. Her eyes opened soon after and she looked up at nothing in particular for a long while before finally speaking “I’m an orphan, Wrex.” 

Not knowing what to say, he simply grunted and resumed playing with her hair. 

“Akuze was a disaster, Kaidan is dead, I _died_ , Earth is dying, mom is dead and I’m an orphan.” 

“What’s that human saying? And time goes on?” 

She harrumphed and she scrunched up her face in a way that made him fear he’d crossed some sort of line, but she snorted and looked up at him with a crooked smile. “You’re right, Wrex, you’re not good at this at all. If I were anyone else you would’ve made all this” -she gestured dramatically at her tear streaked cheeks, swollen eyes and running nose- “a thousand times worse.” 

“If you were anyone else I’d’ve dropped you on the ground and went to bed, it’s the middle of the damned night, Shepard.” 

“Oh? You getting soft, old man?” 

“Heh, I was wondering the same thing about you, Shepard.” 

“Ouch, and here I thought we were making progress.” She closed her eyes again and snuggled a bit into his thigh, a sincere smile tugging at her lips. The rumble in his chest grew in response as a surge of heat ran through him. He forced his mind elsewhere, this was neither the time nor the place. 

And with _Shepard_? It was crazy but, as he dwelt on it, the idea began making more and more sense. He respected her, she was the strongest person he knew, it only made sense that Wrex would be attracted to her. He thought back to the way she looked fighting back on Sur’kesh, all battle rage and brute yet controlled force. The way she commanded with such raw power yet simultaneously maneuvered the battlegrounds with the grace of a dancer had made his duel hearts beat faster. At the time, he’d told himself that it was just him admiring seeing his former commander fight again but now it was clear that it was more than just the appreciation of a fellow warrior. 

“Shepard?” 

“Wrex.” Her eyes were still closed, but her eyebrows rose in a questioning gesture. 

He growled low in his throat, causing Shepard to look up at him and tilted her head a bit. “If you have something to say, say it Wrex. Quit pussyfooting around.” 

Wrex couldn’t help but laugh at that, it was so characteristically Shepard that another, stronger wave of affection washed over him and as he quieted down he allowed a talon to drift from her hair to trace the lines of her strange alien features. He’d never found humans attractive: they were soft, small, easily broken with flat faces and odd, soft crests. Nothing about them was protective, they had no natural armor or exceptional senses. He remembered pointing exactly that out to Shepard during one of their chats on the SR1 and she’d explained that humans were historically pursuit-predators, and he supposed that resilience made them special in some way. They did heal rather quickly and were stubborn, adaptable, arrogant and unpredictable. In that way, he supposed, they were similar to Krogan. Wrex thought that, perhaps out of all of the council races, the humans were most like Krogan. 

“I guess that makes sense.” Her voice shattered his line of thought and when he processed what she said he realized he’d been thinking out loud. His talon paused at the corner of her mouth and he felt it quirk beneath it in a smile. “You know, I’ve always liked Krogan. Maybe that’s why, maybe we’re a lot more alike than we give each other credit for. I’ll admit I’ve had fantasies about working on Krogan and Human cooperation after this is all over. I think our races would make good allies, we could really help each other out. Is that stupid?” 

Wrex snorted, “yeah that’s pretty stupid.” When he felt her smile falter a bit at that he ran his finger along her lips curiously. A fondness crept into his voice, “but if anyone could pull it off it’d be you, Shepard.” 

Her face split into a smile and he chuckled, covering her face with his hand and pushing it so that the dorky grin wasn’t being aimed at him. 

Laughing, she wrenched his hand away but didn’t let go, instead flipping it palm up and running her fingers over it with obvious interest. “Careful, Wrex. If you keep the compliments coming I’m going to need another ship to tow my ego around.” 

They fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes until Shepard sighed and patted his hand dismissively and set about standing up. Wrex could hear her joints cracking loudly as she stretched. After straightening out her civvies, she held out her hands. He accepted them but, rather than letting her help him, he used his weight to pull her back down on him. 

Her laughter after those long minutes heartwrenching sobs was music to his ears. She props her elbows up on his chest and looks at him, her eyes softening and a content smile lingering on her lips. Shepard reaches up and traces Wrex’s scars, then his wide mouth. “Thank you for this. I’m proud to call you friend, Wrex. You’re my best friend and I couldn’t have gotten this far without you, you know.” 

“You trying to butter me up, Shepard?” 

“Maybe. And what would you say to that?” 

“Hmpf, if I had to pick a human.” 

Shepard guffawed, punching his shoulder playfully before her gaze turned thoughtful. “I’m not… I’m not in a good place for it right now, but, when all this is over maybe… Maybe we can explore this further?” 

Wrex grinned and gave her a hard smack on the ass, “I’ll hold you to that, woman.”

**Author's Note:**

> sorry if this seems like she moves on from her mother's death really quick. personally, I don't cry for a long time, especially if there's someone else around. I always end up joking around to get my mind off of things. shep's probably going to have quite a few difficult nights trying to cope, but in the meantime she's happy to just let wrex distract her from being sad :)


End file.
